Of course they have. Barely 200 years ago, I could have owned an African American. Modern Christianity had existed for nearly 2000 years, yet I could legally own another person. If social laws don't evolve, then why am I unable to own another person today? Why have we let women vote? How do you explain changes like that to our laws?

It's the people's attitude and mentalities that have to change before law changes. Laws that stem from the values of the people are easier to enforce. Slavery was very, very common for thousands of years until questioned during the Enlightenment. It wasn't just Christians...it was just accepted by most. It died out in most places with the stroke of a pen. It would have died out eventually among the southern plantation owners too. That was the direction things were moving in.

Until then, there would have been no possibility of even having the new national govt—a Constitutional republic, because some of the minds at the original convention were not ready to let go of it. There was a compromise to get the new govt. So, this argument is sorta bogus, because essentially it's tantamount to saying we should have remained under the Articles of Confederation. In a way, I do think we would have been better off in the sense we'd be a freer people because the anti-Federalists turned out to be correct. However, the slavery point, is overplayed as a point as it was dying out anyway. Though, today, it's returning by making us all slaves to the state.